Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, told Newsmax TV over the weekend that “when it comes to common-sense restrictions on abortion, the American people are with us.”

“When you talk about common-sense restrictions on abortion — parental consent and notification, waiting periods, bans on partial-birth abortion, bans on late-term abortions, women’s right-to-know laws — those are all overwhelmingly popular,” Reed told Newsmax on Saturday at the National Review Summit in Washington.

“In fact, about 80 percent of voters who identify themselves as pro-choice oppose abortion in late periods of pregnancy and oppose abortion after the child can survive outside the womb.

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“We recognize that, for now, Roe vs. Wade is the law of the land — and unless and until the Supreme Court decides otherwise, that’s going to remain the law of the land,” Reed added. “But when it comes to common-sense restrictions, the American people are with us — and it’s not even close.

“It’s 75, 80, 85 percent of the voters, even pro-choice voters, favor these restrictions. They don’t like abortion being used as a form of birth control. They don’t like abortions being performed repeatedly. They don’t like abortions being performed after the child can survive outside the womb.”

Reed also said he does not support Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s recent decision to allow women on the battlefield. Combat readiness is the ultimate issue — not equality.

“Combat is a unique situation, where the paramount concern has got to be combat readiness. If you even look at Israel, where women do serve in combat, only 3 percent of combat positions are occupied by women — and women are not eligible for every combat position.

“If they try to implement it wholesale without regard to physical requirements or training regimes, it could pose a real long-term problem,” Reed added. “It should certainly give us pause that both at the military academies and at military bases we have had significant issues with sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape and other incidents. This is a serious problem within the military and that has to be dealt with.”

Looking to the future of the Republican Party, Reed said the GOP does not “have to necessarily moderate, but they do have to modernize.

“They have to learn how to use new technologies to connect with voters like online and social media. They have to learn how to reach non-traditional constituencies like single and younger women, young people, Hispanics, Asians, and other minorities by finding messages that connect with those voters. And they have to go out there and ask for that vote.”